Is it ethical to root for a team yet not support, agree with or condone one of its players?

Is it ethical and/or moral to root for a team that employs an unethical and/or immoral person (e.g. Michael Vick and the Philadelphia Eagles, Jerry Sandusky and Penn State)? Put another way, is it ethical to root for a team yet not support, agree with or condone one of its players?

As Jesus makes clear in the parable of the weeds and the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43), good and evil mingle closely in our broken world. We are always wrestling with the mixture of good and evil in ourselves individually and in our human institutions and organizations. It might be impossible to find a team with no skeletons in its closet. On some level, to support any team or group is to support its own best version of itself, even if that is something it is still striving to become. On the playing field, this means cheering for your team whether they win or lose. Off the field, it takes on added meaning.

It is possible to love your team but denounce its sins. Sports franchises live and die on popular image, and fans have tremendous bargaining power. Your dollars drive the sports entertainment industry and pay the salaries of those involved. Thus fans collectively have the power to demand upright behavior from sports figures. Michael Vick and Jerry Sandusky, and their enablers, eventually fell from grace because people stopped looking the other way and demanded that they be held accountable. If you are concerned about the actions of a particular player or official on your team, get the conversation started. Talk to the representatives of season ticket holders, fan clubs, media associations, etc. You will be much more proud to wear your team colors when you believe that it is striving to play by the rules not only on the field but everywhere.

Neela Kale is a writer and catechetical minister based in the Archdiocese of Portland. She served with the Incarnate Word Missionaries in Mexico and earned a Master of Divinity at the Jesuit School of Theology. Some of her best theological reflection happens on two wheels as she rides her bike around the hills of western Oregon.